Astronomy and Space Science - Education and Outreach

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Lifelong amateur astronomer, 2014 & 2015 board member of the Warren Astronomical Society, and a volunteer NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador. In recent years, I've been doing increasing amounts of Astronomy Outreach and lecturing about space science. I'm determined to improve Astronomy education in Michigan, and throughout the US. Asteroids and Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are a rather "Big Thing" with me.

About an hour after sunset, the International Space Station will be flying directly over Michigan tonight (Nov. 30, 2017). This would be a great opportunity to spot the station if you have never seen it! The Station will be visible …Continue reading →

If you have spent ANY time in proximity to me in recent years, I’ve probably brought up the subject of Asteroids; of all my Astronomy and Space Science lecture topics, it’s my favorite. Over the last couple years, I’ve gotten …Continue reading →

On a clear winter morning, while walking to work, Something flashed in the sky, And made my head jerk. Then there appeared across the sky, A ball of fire that hurt the eye. It left a roiling cloud of smoke, …Continue reading →

Most images taken of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko have been in greyscale. This is the first true color image of the comet, taken with Rosetta’s OSIRIS camera. Source: The first true color image of comet 67P taken by the Rosetta spacecraft. Rosetta …Continue reading →

This is a re-run of a post that I originally wrote Nov 11, 2015. I think it goes well with the recent posts on the expanding universe. I added some additional closing thoughts. Arguably, one of the most important concepts one learns from studying astronomy, is the astounding vastness of the cosmos. This vastness extends not […]

Fall stars have appeared in the eastern predawn skies; the constellation Orion is low in the east, a thin waning crescent Moon near it for the next few days. Over the coming weeks, Orion will appear a bit higher each morning as it moves slowly towards the southeast. Mars and Saturn continue to be a […]

Mars opposition happened last week with the Earth overtaking Mars in its orbit; the Earth will now pull ahead of Mars as the distance between the two planets increases over the next several months. Mars will slowly dim, and shrink in size in telescopes, but should still be a good observing target for several weeks. […]

The Best Meteor Shower of the Year By Jane Houston Jones and Jessica Stoller-Conrad If you’re a fan of meteor showers, August is going to be an exciting month! The Perseid meteor shower is the best of the year, and in 2018, the peak viewing time for the shower is on a dark, moonless night—perfect […]

The European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft has bounced radar signals through underground layers of ice and found evidence of a pond of water buried beneath Mars' south polar cap. Observations of the Planum Australe region at Mars' south pole were made between 2012 and 2015 using the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere […]

Mars opposition happens this week; several people told me recently that they've seen Mars in the southwestern sky during the early morning hours. I find myself looking for Mars almost automatically now. Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and the Moon make sidewalk astronomy almost too easy for the next few days. A friend and I set up […]

These six infrared images of Saturn's moon Titan represent some of the clearest, most seamless-looking global views of the icy moon's surface produced so far. The views were created using 13 years of data acquired by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) instrument on board NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The images are the result of […]

As Mars opposition nears, the planet shines bright in the southwestern sky before sunrise. I find myself looking out my back window for Mars every morning after I awake. The waxing crescent Moon joins Venus in the western sky near sunset; Jupiter appears more to the south, and is a great observing target for several […]

Jupiter and Saturn make great observing targets in the southern sky after sunset; Jupiter sets shortly after 1:00 AM. Mars continues to shine ever brighter as opposition with Earth approaches later this month. Saturn sets in the southwest with the sunrise. Venus and Mercury are visible in the western sky after sunset; Venus continues to […]

I've been asked "Is that REAL?" several times when showing Jupiter or Saturn through my telescope. Sometimes the viewer adds "Is there a screen in that thing?" I joke about how a light touch on the telescope shakes the image around a bit - sometimes I get gasps from the viewer when I do that, when […]